Hair, women's coveted asset

by K.K.D. Premalal

Hair is the substance that looks like a mass of fine threads growing on the body of the people and some animals. The amount of hair strands an average person has on the head varies from one individual to another.

An average person has about 100,000 hair strands on the head. However, if you have signs of baldness, it may lead to cause bouts of anxiety, psychological stress, emotional distress, lack of self confidence and even depression.

It can be triggered by a number of factors such as emotional and physical stress of city life, adverse drug reaction, hormonal imbalances, local scalp injections, pregnancy and menopause, effects of chemical treatment and host of other reasons.

If somebody is bald headed especially in the front side, he is considered to be a crafty man.

If someone is bald headed in the back he is considered to be a fool.

Hair has a life cycle. Every hair that grows must fall after its life cycle and new hair will grow in its place.

There is a natural balance between the rate at which hair falls and the rate at which new hair grows.

The length of hair is also an important factor in hair loss; the longer the hair, the less the hair loss. Hair grows an average of six inches a year. The maximum hair growth occurs between 15 and 30.

Sleep

How many of us take care of our hair? We must take good care of our hair. We cannot have a sound sleep when our hair is dirty. It is an ugly sight to scratch hair in the presence of others.

We comb our hair when it is dishevelled and we apply many kinds of hair cream, gel and oil on our heads.

However, the youngsters today rarely apply coconut and other medicinal oil on their heads. Instead they apply hair gel which help them to keep their hair straight.

The hair styles too change from time to time. In the past, some males too grew hair and tied a knot at the back with the sole intention of protecting the head.

The members of the armed forces and the police personnel trim their hair short. When our hair turns grey, some of us dye it. There are some people who do not like to dye their hair as most of the dyes are toxic. Anyone who develops an allergic reaction to a hair dye should seek medical advice immediately.

A delay could be fatal at times. However, our hair sometimes turns grey not due to its maturity but due to diseases such as catarrh.

According to Martin Luther, the hair is the richest ornament of women. If women possess long hair, they are considered to be more attractive. Having long, thick hair is one of the five forms of beauty. Women take more care than men about their hair and they get their hair done paying exorbitant prices.

Machine

There are many words, phrases and idioms connected with hair. A hair dresser is a person whose job is to cut, wash and shape your hair. The hair dryer is a small machine used for drying your hair by blowing hot air over it.

The style in which somebody’s hair is cut or arranged is called hair style. A substance sprayed on to the hair to hold it in a particular style is called a hair-spray.

The hair band is a strip of cloth or curved plastic worn by women in their hair, that fits closely over the top of the head and behind the ears.

A brush for making the hair tidy or smooth is a hair-brush. The act of somebody cutting your hair is hair cut. A net worn over the hair to keep it in place is a hair-net. Hairless is an adjective meaning without hair.

A hair piece is a piece of false hair worn to make your own hair look longer or thicker. A small thin piece of wire that is folded in the middle, used by women for holding their hair in place is a hair-pin.

Hairy means covered with a lot of hair or dangerous or frightening but often exciting.

The act of giving too much importance to small and unimportant differences in an argument is called hair splitting arguments.

A very small amount or distance is called hair’s breadth. If you are absolutely terrified of something, it makes your stand on end. Today we use big wigs for very powerful people. Originally the term was used to refer to people wearing big wigs.Even today some senior judges wear wigs. It gives an air of dignity.

Beverages

Salon and saloon are confusable words. A saloon is a room or establishment where alcoholic beverages are served over a counter. On the other hand, a salon (as in beauty salon) is a shop where hairdressers and beauticians work and, where people go to avail beauty treatments and other services. Saloon is also a word that is used to describe a type of car. A saloon in the US means a sedan.

Between the two words, the difference is just of one letter ‘O’ that is suggestive of the words coming from a single source.

In fact this is the case as both ‘salon’ and ‘saloon’ come from the French ‘Salon’ that refers to a large room.

Some say that these words have come from Italian ‘Salone’ that also means a large hall. For a long time to come, both ‘salon’ and ‘saloon’ were used interchangeably to refer to a large room or hall. It was in the 19th century that saloon came to be reserved for a public bar while salon was chosen to refer to a shop or establishment for hair and body care.

Thus we came to have hair and beauty salons and the word is still in vogue for beauty parlours.